We Shall Inherit the Wind

February 22, 2016
Set in 1998, Staalesen’s moving, uncompromising 17th novel featuring Bergen, Norway, PI Varg Veum (after 2013’s Cold Hearts) finds Varg, a former missing-child investigator for a government agency, sitting by the bedside of Karin Bjørge, whom he has recently asked to be his wife. The two met in 1971, when Karin’s 14-year-old sister disappeared; they became romantically involved in 1987. Karin is now at death’s door, and Varg believes that he’s responsible. In a flashback to a week earlier, Karin asks Varg to help a friend locate her missing spouse, Mons Mæland. Mons, a developer, vanished just days before a survey to explore the feasibility of constructing a wind farm on the island of Brennøy. The case quickly becomes a murder investigation, with the crime’s roots possibly connected to the disappearance of Mons’s first wife. The plot, which contains multiple emotional gut punches, will satisfy fans who enjoy seeing noir themes play out in other countries.

April 1, 2016
At first blush, it seems Scandinavian author Staalesen has crafted a thriller out of, of all things, a plan to install a wind farm on privately owned land in Norway. Sardonic PI Varg Veum runs across the plan when he's asked to investigate the disappearance of the man who owns the land on which the farm was to go. Once in favor of wind power, the landowner has lately been swayed by environmentalists' arguments against the technology, and the money men behind the project have begun to get nervous. There's a particularly savage murder along the way, and Veum's inquiries reveal something more sinister than your garden-variety greedy developer up to no good. Staalesen's narrative moves slowlyeach person Veum meets, each room he enters, gets a long, detailed descriptionbut the reader's interest doesn't flag, thanks to the quality of the writing and to Veum's deadpan delivery. The finale carries an emotional weight that may startle readers expecting a standard wrap-up. This isn't sun-and-sand reading. It takes patience and concentration. But readers familiar with the demands of the Scandinavian wing of crime fiction will feel right at home.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)